Investment focus will be on new drugs and technologies that will truly impact the future of medicine

Forbion, a leading European life science venture capital firm, has today announced the first close of its fourth flagship fund Forbion IV, at EUR 270 million, exceeding the EUR 250 million target size.

Forbion IV, like its predecessor fund, Forbion III, will primarily focus on EU and the UK (together c. 80% of investment), with the remainder of the fund targeting opportunities in North America.

Building on the successful Forbion III strategy, Forbion’s latest fund will have an even sharper focus on biotech. Forbion will also look to build on its proven ability to curate, initiate and transform investment ideas into standalone, high-return businesses, built around exciting new science, proven teams or assets sourced externally from Pharma. It will thus build a portfolio of approximately 15 companies, of which ten will be existing “growth” opportunities and five will be new companies (co-)founded by Forbion, so-called “build” opportunities.

The fourth fund will target substantial initial stakes of 20-50%, looking to take lead positions and work alongside entrepreneurial management teams to deliver exceptional returns as shown by Forbion’s highly successful third Fund (2015 vintage), which has already delivered three exits with several more in the making, including one near-term IPO.

Forbion has assembled a highly specialized and experienced team to manage the Fund, led by Sander Slootweg, Geert-Jan Mulder and Martien van Osch. The investment team are in turn supported by a high caliber group of operating partners, venture partners and advisers which affords Forbion exceptional reach and depth into its chosen markets.

A strong pipeline of investment opportunities has already been identified and the first close will facilitate Forbion’s discussion on these deals.

Forbion is targeting Autumn 2018 for the final close of Forbion IV.

Commenting, Sander Slootweg, Managing Partner, said:

“We have received exceptional support from both new and existing investors to reach the EUR 270 million first close. This is testament to the unrivalled experience and track record Forbion has built over many years of investing in European life sciences opportunities.

“The success of our first close not only reflects Forbion’s consistent delivery of upper quartile returns but also its clear vision and proprietary methodology for identifying new prospects. We continue to see the opportunities for superior returns, in part due to the ongoing undersupply of capital for European development-stage life sciences investment and its non-cyclical nature.

“Forbion will continue to benefit from its deep European and US/Canadian network and from its fundamental commercial understanding of the political, legal, regulatory and cultural dynamics at work across Europe; these factors contribute to our standing as an investor of choice in the European life sciences.

“We welcome our new investors and look forward to executing on our robust pipeline of opportunities and delivering continued outperformance.”

ENDS

About Forbion

Forbion is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands and Germany. Forbion invests in life sciences companies that are active in the pharmaceutical, as well as the medical device space. Forbion’s investment team has built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with successful investments in over 50 companies. Forbion manages well over EUR 1 billion across ten funds. Its investors include the EIF, through its European Recovery Programme (ERP), LfA and Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI) facilities and the KFW through the ERP – Venture Capital Fondsfinanzierung facility. Forbion also operates a joint venture with BGV, the manager of seed and early stage funds focused on Benelux and Germany. www.forbion.com